Crypto Country GuideCrypto rules and tax, country by country

Switzerland: regulation

Last reviewed: October 2026

On this page
  1. Legal status and supervision
  2. Exchanges and KYC
  3. Stablecoins
  4. Crypto ATMs
  5. Scams and where to report them
  6. Self-custody
    1. If you lose access to your wallet
  7. Sources
  • Switzerland has no single crypto law. Buying, holding and paying with crypto needs no license. Providers that exchange, hold or transfer crypto for customers fall under anti-money-laundering law and must join a self-regulatory organization (SRO) or hold a FINMA license.
  • Expect identity checks: for one-off exchange transactions from CHF 1,000. When you withdraw to your own wallet, a Swiss provider must treat the wallet as belonging to a verified customer.
  • New license types for crypto institutions and stablecoin issuers are planned. At the time of writing (October 2026) the Federal Council had not yet sent the bill to parliament.
  • FINMA cannot protect individual investors or get your money back. Report fraud to the cantonal police.

This page covers who supervises crypto in Switzerland, what that means when you use an exchange, and the rules for your own wallet. Which exchanges are supervised, and their fees, are on exchanges. It is general information, not legal advice.

Switzerland has no single crypto law. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) applies existing financial market law to crypto activities, case by case. FINMA sorts tokens by their economic purpose into payment, utility and asset tokens, and the tax authority (ESTV) uses the same categories. The DLT Act, which adapted several laws to blockchain technology, has been fully in force since 1 August 2021.

For users, FINMA says in its fact sheet on crypto-assets (May 2022) that Switzerland has no financial market rules on buying and selling crypto or using it to pay for goods and services, so no license is needed to do so. For providers:

  • Anti-money-laundering law. According to FINMA, custody, exchange, trading and payment services with payment tokens fall under the Anti-Money Laundering Act. Such providers must join a self-regulatory organization (SRO) before they start (Art. 14 AMLA); the SRO then supervises them for money-laundering purposes.
  • License. A provider that holds payment tokens from several clients in its own wallets (collective custody), or takes deposits from the public, may need a bank license or a FinTech license (Art. 1b Banking Act). Business models that involve securities may need a license under the Financial Institutions Act, for example as a securities firm. A DLT trading facility needs its own license; FINMA licensed the first one in March 2025.

Planned new licenses. On 22 October 2025 the Federal Council opened a consultation (closed 6 February 2026) on two new license categories in the Financial Institutions Act: payment instrument institutions, which would replace the FinTech license and could issue a certain type of stablecoin, and crypto institutions, with requirements modeled on securities firms. Customer funds would be kept out of the bankruptcy estate if the institution fails. The Federal Council plans to send a bill to parliament in the second half of 2026 at the earliest. At the time of writing (October 2026) the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF) had not announced one.

Exchanges and KYC

Check before you use a provider: FINMA lists the institutions it has licensed, and each SRO publishes its members. FINMA also keeps a warning list of firms that may be offering services without the required license. Our comparison of the providers used in Switzerland is on exchanges.

  • Identity checks. A provider must identify you when an exchange transaction with a virtual currency, or several transactions that appear to be linked, reach CHF 1,000 or more, even without an ongoing business relationship (Art. 51a AMLO-FINMA). FINMA lowered this threshold from CHF 5,000 on 1 January 2021. When you open an account, you are identified in any case.
  • Travel rule. FINMA Guidance 02/2019 (26 August 2019) says information about the sender and the beneficiary must be passed on with transfers of tokens, as with bank transfers (Art. 10 AMLO-FINMA).
  • Custody. In Guidance 01/2026 (12 January 2026) FINMA set out how licensed institutions must hold customers’ crypto, including with custodians abroad, so that it does not become part of the custodian’s bankruptcy estate. The institution stays responsible when it uses outside providers.
  • Staking. FINMA Guidance 08/2023 sets out its expectations for institutions that offer staking, including the risk if a staking provider fails.

Stablecoins

Switzerland does not apply the EU’s MiCA rules. FINMA treats stablecoins under existing law, using its supplement on stablecoins (11 September 2019): depending on what backs the coin and what holders can claim, the issuer may need a bank license or other authorization. In Guidance 06/2024 (26 July 2024) FINMA says that various issuers in Switzerland use default guarantees from banks, which means they often do not need a banking license, and it points to increased risks of money laundering, terrorist financing and the circumvention of sanctions. We found no official Swiss list of approved or banned stablecoins. The planned payment instrument institutions (see above) would be allowed to issue a specific type of stablecoin.

Crypto ATMs

Crypto ATMs are not banned, and we found no separate license or register for them. An operator that sells crypto for cash is a financial intermediary under the anti-money-laundering rules. It must identify the customer from CHF 1,000, and when it takes cash or other anonymous means of payment, it must use technical measures so that linked transactions within 30 days do not exceed that threshold (Art. 51a AMLO-FINMA). Payments in crypto cannot be reversed, which is why fraudsters often send victims to a crypto ATM: if someone you met online or on the phone asks you to pay into one, stop.

Scams and where to report them

In its guide on protecting yourself from unauthorized providers (18 December 2024), FINMA warns that crypto payments “cannot be reversed” and cannot be refunded by a central authority. It warns about multilevel marketing schemes with a provider’s own coin, and about offers that promise returns like bitcoin’s past gains. FINMA advises investing only where the provider’s business model is comprehensible and transparent. In our experience, common warning signs are pressure to act fast, promised returns, unknown platforms and requests to pay into a wallet or crypto ATM.

  1. Check FINMA’s warning list, and the warning list of the Zurich cantonal police that FINMA refers to. FINMA says its list is not exhaustive.
  2. Report fraud to the police. To file a criminal complaint (Strafanzeige), go to your local police station; some offenses can be reported online through Suisse ePolice where your canton offers it. The cantonal police platform cybercrimepolice.ch takes tips on new fraud methods.
  3. Unlicensed providers are FINMA’s business. FINMA can act only where it has jurisdiction and there are concrete signs of a violation. Carrying on an activity that needs a license without one is a criminal offense, and FINMA files a complaint with the Criminal Law Division of the Federal Department of Finance.
  4. Report cyber incidents such as phishing to the Federal Office for Cyber Security (BACS). It does not accept criminal complaints.

What the authorities cannot do: FINMA says it “is not able to protect individual investors”. Often the money is already lost before it can step in, and investors must seek compensation from the providers themselves under civil or criminal law. Be careful with anyone who offers to recover lost crypto for an upfront fee.

Self-custody

You do not need a license or registration to hold crypto in your own wallet, and we found no Swiss rule that restricts private wallets. The rules reach you when you move crypto to or from a supervised provider: under FINMA Guidance 02/2019, Swiss-supervised institutions are “only permitted to send cryptocurrencies or other tokens to external wallets belonging to their own customers whose identity has already been verified”, and may receive them only from such customers. Expect to show that the address is yours; each provider decides how you do that.

For tax, coins in your own wallet are treated like coins on an exchange: they count as wealth at their value on 31 December (see personal tax). Holding crypto yourself means the keys are your responsibility. If you keep a larger amount of bitcoin in your own wallet, this comparison of multisig and single-signature wallets explains what each protects against.

If you lose access to your wallet

We found no official Swiss statement, federal or from the canton of Zurich, on how lost private keys or stolen crypto are treated for wealth tax. Losses on private assets are not deductible for income tax. If this applies to you, ask your cantonal tax authority before you file. For what your heirs would need, and the rest of your digital life such as email and password managers, see this introduction to planning a digital estate.

Sources

This page is general information, not legal advice. Rules change, so check the official sources above before you act.